Children like to play with puzzles and toys. Historically, puzzles have been made out of cardboard or paper. Puzzles are normally made in a single plane where all pieces fit together to make a final picture. Three dimensional puzzles are known where shaped pieces fit together vertically and horizontally to form a complete three dimensional shape such as a sphere or a building. However, the prior art does not disclose a three dimensional puzzle where multiple planes fit together to form a complete predetermined image. In addition, puzzles are not meant to be colored or drawn on by users. What is needed is a puzzle that permits a child to color and draw on top of the image that is created when the pieces fit together. In addition, standard puzzles are limited in that puzzles must be completed on a horizontal surface. Also, pieces can be dropped and lost when putting the puzzle together. What is needed is a puzzle which may be put together and displays on a vertical surface and where the puzzle pieces are not easily dropped because they are magnetic and adhere to a specific location.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the puzzle pieces closely resemble human figures, such as paper dolls. Children have played with paper dolls throughout history. Normally a child will cut out a human shape out of paper and color or draw a human figure on the piece of cut out paper, forming a paper doll. The child will then color or draw accessories for this paper doll on other pieces of paper. The child then cuts out these accessories and places them on the paper doll. Normally a child will color clothing items for the paper doll. The child then cuts out the clothing item for the paper doll with fold over tabs. These tabs fold over the edge of the paper doll and hold the paper clothing onto the paper doll. A child may then draw new clothing items, cut them out, and then easily exchange them with the originally drawn paper clothing items. This type of play provides hours of entertainment to children.
Although well known, the historical method is limited. Paper cannot be reused once it has been cut and colored. Improvements to the standard historical method are also known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,573 (Smith) discloses and claims a magnetic doll accessory kit that utilizes magnetic dolls covered with paper and a steel backing sheet. This patent is limited in that the planar magnetic accessories would not lock into place when placed on the paper doll but could be placed in any position, or could slide around after being placed in the proper position. U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,117 (Gonzalez) teaches a paper doll with a plurality of miniature magnets at specific points. While such a system would allow the doll accessories to lock into place, the system is limited in that these specific magnets must be carefully placed during the manufacturing process or the magnets may fall out of the paper doll during use. Thus this system may easily fail.
In addition, it is often desirable to customize these paper dolls and accessories. Magnetic paper dolls are often bought with images and colors already present on the material without any manner to change the appearance of any one piece of the set. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0159793 (Pittendurf et al.) teaches a customizable magnetic paper doll set where a user prints out pictures on paper and adheres them to a magnetic backing. Such customization is limited though in that the paper may easily become detached from the magnetic backing.
What is needed is a magnetic puzzle in which the pieces lock into place and in which the images appearing on the pieces can be customized by coloring the parts, wiping them clean, and then coloring them again, or by printing desirable designs directly onto the magnetic backing by means of a personal printer.